Rice farmer Gina Tambal was all smiles when she received her PHP5,000 cash assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday.

The 46-year-old Tambal, a farmer from Barangay San Juan in Sibalom town, was thankful that the aid came right on time for the first cropping period.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Tambal said she received her intervention monitoring card with PHP5,000 fund from DA’s Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund–Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) during the distribution at the Sibalom Municipal Gymnasium in Sibalom town.

Tambal said she would use the assistance to purchase fertilizer and insecticide needed on her farm.

“I am glad that I was able to receive my IMC. I now have something to buy fertilizer and insecticide for our farm,” she said, adding that farming is her family’s main source of livelihood and the cash assistance will ensure that their farm will be in better shape this planting season.

Sixty-year-old Violeta Ruelo from Barangay Poblacion District II in Sibalom also got her PHP5,000 cash aid.

Now that her husband is dead, Ruelo said she and her son would have to till their more than one-hectare farm, their lone source of livelihood.

“We could spend at least PHP9,000 for the planting and the cash assistance brings us so much relief,” she said.

With the PHP5,000 aid already there, Ruelo said they just need to raise PHP4,000 more to complete the expenses for their one-hectare farm lot.

Tambal and Ruelo were among the 8,941 farmers from Antique who benefited from the cash aid.

While Tambal and Ruelo would spend the cash assistance to buy fertilizers and other needs for their farms, other farmer-beneficiaries would use the fund to buy seeds, according to Antique provincial government consultant on agriculture Fernando Corvera.

“Most farmers in Antique are still into direct seeding so they need to have at least three to four bags or 40 kilograms of rice seedlings to be sown on their one-hectare farm,” he said.

Corvera said the DA, through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), could only provide one bag of 40 kilos of rice seedlings per hectare. (PNA)